


Treasure

by Saraku



Series: Those Who Seek [MarcoAce Week 2016] [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, MarcoAce Week, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 10:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8841799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraku/pseuds/Saraku
Summary: Marco never expected to know what Ace's greatest treasure was. He also wasn't expecting to find one of his greatest treasures - and if he was being honest, he didn't mind.





	

There were times that Marco did not understand Ace. At all. He had spotted the newest charge of their father go almost immediately towards the trash site. He had been following the same pattern for the past three days they’d been docked at the island, and it was time to leave.

And because Thatch was lazy, he dropped the responsibility on Marco – and waited to tell the man himself an _hour before_ they were leaving, subsequently leaving Marco to get Ace, because no one else was fast enough to get the stubborn brat.

Which led Marco to circling the skies in full Phoenix form in search for Ace. Luckily for him, the sun had just risen, barely over the horizon, which made it easier to search for the kid. To his mild surprise, he had spotted Ace in a cleaned, semi-circular pile.

Gliding over a flat top of trash, Marco partially turned back, leaving his feet and arms as their Phoenix form. Ace’s back was to him, intently looking at each item before either tossing them to what Marco deemed to be trash and not-so-trash.

“What are you doing?” He drawled.

Ace straightened almost instantly, and Marco bit back a chuckle at how his body stiffened. “Uh,” Ace stuttered, “searching.”

“…Searching for what?”

This time, Ace turned around when he answered, a childish look on his face. “For treasure!”

“…What?” Marco blinked, befuddled. “Treasure? _Here?_ ”

“Mhm.” Ace crouched back down, swiftly sorting through a pile of trash before moving on to a surprisingly neatly sorted set of items that were thrown away.

Marco sighed, settling himself on a flat surface before letting his wings transform back, and his arms fell to his sides. “I’ll humour you, yoi: what treasure? Why here?”

Ace shrugged nonchalantly. “You never know what kind of treasures you can find here – I mean, people back home threw some pretty cool stuff away all the time!” Ace flashed him a smile. “You wouldn’t believe what sort of people I saw there, too.”

Marco held back a smile. Whatever Ace did at his home clearly made him happy. “Is this a hobby of yours?”

“Uhh…” Ace rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Kind of? I mean, there wasn’t much to do where I lived, anyway. Besides, why are _you_ here?” Ace turned the question towards Marco, and the Phoenix gave him a bored look. “Are you here for a scavenge hunt, too?”

“No,” Marco deadpanned, “my favourite hobby is having to look for you whenever you go without notice. Of course, the family got worried, and I can look for you the fastest.”

“Oh?” Ace quirked a grin, prompting Marco to raise his eyebrows. “And here, I thought your favourite hobby was reading and making maps.”

“You have many assumptions of me, Ace.”

“Pfft, me?” Ace winked. “I know for a fact that your favourite hoby is treasure hunting, though.”

Irritable brat. “Where do you get these assumptions, yoi?”

Marco blinked owlishly, surprised at how much background information he’d accidentally pried off Ace. If Thatch ever found out, he’d be sent to fetch Ace all the time; while he loved spending time with Ace, it was going to get ridiculous quite fast. “Interesting place. What are you looking for, anyway?”

“Goggles.”

“Goggles, yoi?” Marco repeated, raising an eyebrow. “ _Goggles?_ ”

Ace leaned back from his pile search, tilting his head to face Marco. “Yes, Marco, goggles. Your hearing must be pretty bad if you needed me to repeat that.”

Marco faked a frown and dropped from his ledge, making his way towards Ace, who was surrounded by bits of sorted trinkets that did not look as terrible as he expected. “What do you need them for?”

“A personal project,” Ace retorted, voice clipped and hard, and Marco sighed; it was clear that Ace wasn’t going to give anymore information.

“Why search here, yoi? You could look almost anywhere else and you’d have better luck finding goggles _and_ have them in good condition.”

Ace paused his search, stretching his arms and slumping forward. “As I said: kinda a hobby.”

Marco wasn’t buying it. Ace had a pensive look on his face and it was clear to the First Commander that there was more than what he was saying. “Why not ask Fossa? He has spares, and if you tell him you need it for a personal reason, he’d let you use them,” Marco reasoned. Everybody in their family knew of Ace’s vagueness, and pushing him for information led to disastrous results, which was why they mostly – _mostly_ – gave Ace what he wanted within reason. Also, the place smelled. Marco didn’t want to be there anymore.

Ace glared at Marco. “Let me do what I want, Marco.”

Ahh, so the brat was out of excuses. Marco glanced at the pile Ace had accumulated. “Can it be any type, Ace? We _are_ setting off soon.”

“Wha?”

“Honestly, Ace.” Marco let a small smile form on his face. “Two hunters are better than one. I’ll help you search f it means we can get back sooner, yoi.”

Ace’s face coloured. “I – “ The younger pirate shook his head vehemently, standing up from his position and moving away. “It’s alright, Marco. I can search on my own time”

“Ace – “

“Seriously, Marco,” Ace said, a warning-type look in his eyes. His body was tensed, as if ready for a fight. “You don’t need to get involved. I’m looking for something specific, and we won’t get back on time, so…”

Marco narrowed his eyes at Ace’s evasiveness, but decided to drop it. “Fine, yoi. Grab what you want now and I’ll take us back.”

Ace’s shoulders slumped in relief, the tenseness leaving. He swiftly scooped an entire hoard – _hoard –_ into his arm, securing them into a bag – where did that come from? – before slinging his other arm around Marco’s shoulder. The elder pirate acknowledged the sign and transformed, soaring into the sky and above the _Moby Dick_.

Just like when they went flying, Ace let joyful laughter escape him, and Marco couldn’t help but temporarily forget how upset Ace had been when Marco had said they had to leave. When they landed on deck, Ace slipped off Marco’s large Phoenix form, still breathless and small chuckles coming from him, and Marco could see the others smile at how giddy Ace was. “Thanks for the ride, Marco.” Ace grinned, shifting the bag of trinkets over his shoulder before escaping somewhere – somewhere Marco guessed to be Ace’s room.

“Brat,” Marco mumbled. He nodded in acknowledgement towards the others before striding off towards the kitchen with every intent to reprimand Thatch –

Only to almost literally run into Izo.

“Marco,” Izo said, looking coy towards Marco. “You look irritated.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Izo,” Marco deadpanned. “I needed to ask you something.”

“Does it have anything to do with what Ace asked me?”

“No – wait, Ace sked you for something?” Marco quickly changed his question.

Izo dipped his head. “Yeah. He showed me a design for some headwear, said to let him know if I found anything of the sort.”

“Do you remember what it looked like, yoi?” Marco pressed.

Izo tapped a finger on his arm. “About. Give me a day and I’ll have the design sketched out.”

Marco gave his brother a relieved smile. “Thank you, Izo.”

 

~~*~~*~~

 

“Ace?” Marco whispered, knocking quietly on Ace’s door and leaning slightly. “You awake?”

“Mhhm..?” Marco let out a light huff. “’co?”

“If you can bring yourself to get up for an extra five minutes,” Marco said, baiting the teen, “then get out here. I need to show you something.” He waited for a moment, and it his lip to minimize noise as Ace’s room suddenly became _much_ louder than it had been when he came by.

 

“M’rco…?” Ace asked, words slurred and voice tired. Marco swooped down from his position on the mast, soaring in the sky for a short amount of time – just enough to catch Ace’s attention properly. Ace was still rubbing his eyes. “Marco,” he repeated, tone and voice stronger.

Huffing lightly, Marco swooped to the ground and transformed, and the item he had clasped in his beak was tightly gripped in his hand, making sure he didn’t spoil the surprise. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Ace repeated, unsure on what as going on.

“Give me your hand, yoi.”

“What?”

Marco rolled his eyes. “I said, give me your necklace.”

“No need to be so sarcastic,” Ace retorted, giving Marco his hand, palm up and open. Marco gripped the wrist, pulling the hand up higher, and before Ace had an idea on what Marco was doing…

“Here, Ace.” Marco promptly dropped the goggles onto Ace’s open palm, grinning at the sight of Ace’s surprised face. It was a near-exact replica of the sketch Izo had provided him – blue goggles with hexagonal lens and framing, with white straps and décor.

“Marco,” Ace breathed out. “Is this – ?”

Marco cut off Ace with a chaste kiss to his cheek, laughing softly as the raven-haired pirate turned scarlet and almost yelped in response. “Is this what you were looking for, Ace?” Marco asked, pulling away as Ace lightly rubbed the cheek he had kissed.

“Y-Yeah, but – !”

“Then no need to say anything, Ace.” Marco smiled, partially transforming and hopping onto Ace’s shoulder, amused by how Ace was only mildly surprised and quickly reacted, shifting his weight to support Marco.

“I…” Ace uttered, still speechless. He raised a hand, and Marco felt Ace’s hand brush at his wings. “Thank you, Marco,” Ace quietly responded, seemingly enthralled by the goggles. “You have no idea how much this means to me – _no_ idea.”

“I’m sure,” Marco muttered.

“How – how’d you find this!?”

Marco grinned. “You weren’t wrong when you said my favourite hobby was treasure hunting, yoi.” Marco dropped from Ace’s shoulder, fully transforming back into a human before tugging at Ace’s wrist, dragging the teen toward Marco’s chest and embracing him. “After all,” Marco continued, letting his nose drop on Ace’s hair, “I found you, didn’t I?”

**Author's Note:**

> I... actually did another day? Wow. Don't be deceived. This wont keep up.


End file.
